Because the Night Belongs to Us

This text is an epilogue to this special issue, where topics addressed by its different contributors are of a great scientific interest towards more profound understanding about the urban night in both the Global North and South. As will be argued below, this special issue allows us to confirm two fundamental issues for the develop- ment of « Night Studies » in the next years. Firstly, the night often exacerbates the range of inequalities not only in the Western world but in non-Western cities. And, secondly, the night remains as an underexplored terrain, and, therefore, there is still a long path to walk.Ce texte est un épilogue à ce numéro spécial, où les sujets abordés par les différents contributeurs sont d’un grand intérêt scientifique pour une compréhension plus approfondie de la nuit urbaine dans le Nord et le Sud globaux. Comme nous le verrons plus loin, ce numéro spécial nous permet de confirmer deux questions fondamentales pour le développement des « études nocturnes » durant les prochaines années. Premièrement, la nuit exacerbe souvent les inégalités, non seulement dans le monde occidental, mais aussi dans les villes non occidentales. Deuxièmement, la nuit reste un terrain sous-exploré. Par conséquent, le chemin reste encore long à parcourir

some theoretical notes

CEECIND/01171/2017 PTDC/ART-PER/32417/2017 UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Agrowing number of authors have recently suggested a clear interaction between tourist gentrification and commercial gentrification. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the growing interrelation between the nighttime leisure economy and urban tourism, along with all its complex forms of simultaneous interaction as fundamental driving forces of the current processes transforming the social, economic and cultural fabric of the central areas of many European cities. This short paper will argue that much more academic attention should be paid to how the touristification of nightlife is emerging as one of the most aggressive forms of material, symbolic and heritage dispossession of local communities within the central historic neighborhoods of many European cities.publishersversionpublishe

Celebrating cosmopolitanism in a racialized heterotopic pleasurescape

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Lisbon has experienced a boom in tourism since the beginning of the past decade. In parallel, the expansion of the nighttime leisure economy in the historical neighbourhoods of the city centre has gained renown. In part, this reflects the recent growth in international college students, high-skilled international workers temporarily living in the city as well as visitors and tourists. In one of Lisbon historical city centre neighbourhoods, Bairro Alto, the nightlife has experienced recent and accelerated changes that have re-shaped the multiple forms in which tourists and visitors ‘experience’ the neighbourhood during night-time leisure hours. One such change involves the case of the rapid proliferation of pub-crawls. Based on ongoing ethnographic research into the urban nightlife in Bairro Alto that began in January 2010, this working paper sets out the preliminary findings about the ‘hyperfestive atmosphere’ of nighttime pub-crawls in Bairro Alto. In particular, the paper explores how the production, reproduction and consumption of the hyperfestive atmospheres of celebration of middle-class cosmopolitanism prevailing within pub-crawls are devoted to avoiding any undesired contact with ‘the others’ – i.e., anyone not belonging to their crowd – and, especially, with the local black youngsters from the suburbs who are also present in the nights of Bairro Alto. Finally, this working paper remarks how the attitudes and behaviours of pub-crawl organizers and patrons often contribute towards socially and racially segmenting the Bairro Alto nightlife. The paper ends up by pointing out how the hedonist and joyful celebrations of cosmopolitanism of both pub-crawl organizers and their patrons serve as a ‘camouflage device’ for their active role in racializing the nightlife of this touristified historical neighborhood of Lisbonpublishersversionpublishe

En el centro de todas las miradas : una aproximación a la historiografía de la frenología

Desde finales del siglo XIX, la frenología fue considerada, en el mejor de los casos, como una pseudo-ciencia popularizada por charlatanes. Durante la década de 1970 los representantes de la nueva historia social de la ciencia y de la medicina la escogieron como un caso ejemplar para penetrar en los procesos de delimitación de la ortodoxia científica. Desde entonces, las diferentes aproximaciones a la frenología han contribuido a cambiar una imagen del siglo XIX que asignaba un peso excesivo a los procesos de profesionalización y tecnificación de la ciencia y de la medicina. En este artículo se analizan las principales aportaciones al estudio de la frenología realizadas durante las últimas tres décadas por la historiografía francesa y anglosajona y se señalan algunos aspectos que deberían recibir mayor atención en futuras investigaciones

Políticas culturales, transformaciones urbanas e higienización social en la Barcelona contemporánea

During these last three decades, culture has played a fundamental role in great urban transformations. However, they have involved some changes in social and cultural field not only in downtown Western cities, but also their suburbs. This papers will try to show how cultural strategies for urban renewal processes carried out by Barcelona’s local City Hall has meant, in last term, social homogenization strategies. This paper will end by showing how recent convergence between conservative and liberal sectors of ruling classes of Catalan capital about which cultural strategies must be applied for urban renewal processes could mean the consolidation of new topographies of power in contemporary metropolitan Barcelona.Desde las últimas tres décadas, la cultura ha venido desempeñando un papel fundamental en las grandes transformaciones urbanas de las ciudades occidentales. Sin embargo, tales transformaciones han conllevado también notables cambios en el ámbito social y cultural no solamente en los centros urbanos sinó también en los áreas suburbanas Este artículo pretende mostrar cómo las estrategias culturales llevadas a cabo por el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona para la renovación urbana de su centro histórico así como también sus suburbios no han dejado de ser, en última instancia, estrategias para la homogeneización e higienización social de la ciudad. El artículo finaliza realizando varias hipótesis abiertas sobre la reciente convergencia, en el ámbito de las políticas culturales de la ciudad de Barcelona, entre los sectores nacionalistas conservadores y progresistas de la capital catalana y que explicitan, al menos de manera hipotética, la eclosión de nuevas topografías del poder en la Barcelona metropolitana contemporánea.Depuis les trois dernières décennies, la culture a joué un rôle important dans la transformation urbaine des villes européens. Toutefois, ces changements ont également entraîné des changements significatifs dans le développement social et culturel non seulement dans les centres urbains mais également dans les zones suburbaines Cet article vise à montrer comment les stratégies culturels poursuivis par le conseil municipal de Barcelone pour sa rénovation urbaine du centre historique et de sa banlieue sont également stratégies d’homogénéisation sociale et d’assainissement de la ville. L’article conclut en faisant plusieurs hypothèses ouvertes sur la convergence récente dans le domaine des politiques culturelles de la ville de Barcelone, entre les secteurs conservateurs nationalistes et progressistes de la capitale catalane et qui expliquent, au moins hypothétiquement, l’émergence de nouvelles topographies de pouvoir dans le Barcelona métropolitaine contemporaine

ICNS Proceedings

The night has been the subject of multiple readings by the social and human sciences, as well as it has inspired multiple narratives throughout history, literature and popular culture. However, the study of nightlife, practices, and actors only gained attention in recent years. The appearance of “mayors of the night” with the intention of improving urban governance during this period and thus guaranteeing needs, rights and services is the result of a progressive change in the local political paradigm, which begins to face this space-time as a “new” opportunity for its economic, social and cultural development. We could say that the night and the activities that take place in it begin to be projected as forms of tourist attraction, whether for their leisure activities such as discos, parties or other forms of fun; or because of its cultural potential, such as the White Nights. Contemporary urban night implies having active professionals, capable of reacting to any incident, such as the case of health professionals, but also maintaining those professions – often illegal – that tend to be considered problematic or hidden as could be prostitution. Surveillance and control during this period is also a good example of active professions, such as the case of the police, surveillance companies, video-doorman, or firefighters. It has never been so easy to commute in the urban space, public transport normally meets the needs of users, and the emergence of new forms of transport resulting from the circular economy, both of people and goods, completes the demand, not without controversy. There are many different ways to approach the night, but here we collect some of the communications that participated during the I International Conference on Night Studies, that took place on-line, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on July 2 -4, 2020. These communications are also on-line on the official account of the conference.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evolution of the Sweetness Receptor in Primates. I. Why Does Alitame Taste Sweet in all Prosimians and Simians, and Aspartame only in Old World Simians?

In the order Primates the responses to sucrose, alitame and aspartame were ascertained. All primates tested to date like sucrose and prefer this sweet substance to tap water. The artificial dipeptide aspartame was found to be not sweet in Prosimii and Platyrrhini (New World monkeys). Only the Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes and humans) show the same response to aspartame and to sucrose. In contrast, all primates tested so far prefer alitame, another artificial dipeptide sweetener, which is structurally closely related to aspartame. This phylogenetic difference is consistent with the existence in catarrhine primates of a sweetness receptor containing two differently located hydrophobic recognition sites, one for the hydrophobic binding site of alitame, the other for the hydrophobic binding site of aspartame. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that the alitame-related hydrophobic recognition site, which is found in the sweetness receptor of all primates, could be a requisite for the interaction of the receptor with sucrose, while the aspartame-related hydrophobic recognition site, which is found exclusively in the sweetness receptor of Old World simians, could have been a crucial factor in the improvement in detection or selection of sucrose in foods, so favouring the mental development of these simians and maybe the emergence of humans. Chem. Senses 20: 573-584, 199

Evolution of the Sweetness Receptor in Primates. II. Gustatory Responses of Non-human Primates to Nine Compounds Known to be Sweet in Man

The gustatory responses of nine compounds, namely glycine, D-phenylalanine, D-tryptophan, cyanosuosan, magapame, sucrononate, campame, cyclamate and superaspartame, all known as sweet in man, were studied in 41 species or subspecies of non-human primates, selected among Prosimii (Lemuridae and Lorisidae), Platyrrhini (Callitrichidae and Cebidae) and Catarrhini (Cercopithecidae, Hylobatidae and Pongidae). The first six compounds are generally sweet to all primates, which implies that they interact with the primate sweetness receptors essentially through constant recognition sites. Campame is sweet only to Cebidae and Catarrhini, cyclamate only to Catarrhini, superaspartame principally to Callitrichidae and Catarrhini, which implies that all these compounds interact with the receptors partly through variable recognition sites. From the present work, from other previous results (where notably it was observed that alitame is sweet to all primates, ampame only to Prosimii and Catarrhini, and aspartame only to Catarrhini), and from the multipoint attachment (MPA) theory of sweetness reception (as elaborated by Nofre and Tinti from a detailed study of structure-activity relationships of various sweeteners in man), it is inferred that the primate sweetness receptors are very likely made up of eight recognition sites, of which the first, second, third, fourth, seventh and eighth are constant, and the fifth and sixth variable. From these results and from the MPA theory, it is also inferred that the recognition sites of the primate sweetness receptors could be: Asp-1 or Glu-1, Lys-2, Asp-3 or Glu-3, Thr-4, X-5, X-6, Thr-7, Ser-8, where the variable recognition sites X-5 and X-6 would be: Ala-5 and Ala-6 for Callitrichidae, Ser-5 and Ala-6 for Cebidae, Ala-5 and Thr-6 for Prosimii, and Thr-5 and Thr-6 for Catarrhini. By using Tupaiidae (tree shrews) as a reference outgroup and by means of other structural and functional molecular considerations, it appears that Callitrichidae have retained the most primitive receptor among the four types of primate receptors. The possible taxonomic and phylogenetic implications of these findings are discussed. Chem. Senses 21: 747-762, 199